Why are people poor?

I think many of you probably know that my most recent and engaging call has been pushing me (maybe not away from parish ministry but) toward mission work in a Spanish-speaking country.

So when I heard that I have the opportunity to go to Honduras this January with some really amazing classmates, I jumped on the chance like a slightly crazy and desperate girl.

In preparation for my mission trip to Honduras, I will be writing about some missional things.  This first post is how I responded to our application question.  It got me thinking about my own identity in Christ and whether or not I am really living into that.  

Why are people poor? What role should the Church have, if any in responding to poverty?

People are poor because we are a broken humanity.  People are inherently self-centered and concerned with having enough and, in the Northern Hemisphere, an abundance of resources.  We live in a Western society that shouts, “more!” in every commercial, store front, and magazine.  Capitalism buys into the excessive culture and perpetuates it until it is out of control.  Westernized countries own the most wealth in the world because of a society that is disconnected from the needs of the entire world.  As long as broken, selfish people are in charge of distributing resources, there will always be people who do not have enough.  

The Church is all about identity.  If, as missionaries, Christians are able to confuse the identities of people in other nations as well as our own nations, to the point of only considering ourselves Christian, the first step to end poverty will be accomplished.  This is not an easy task.  Changing the core identities of people who have been told for hundred of years that they are American, European, or African is not something that will be accomplished overnight.  

Responding to poverty is not about charity from Westernized countries.  It starts with a change in identity, continues with education, and is carried out with love that transcends borders and ethnicities.  The Church must provide an alternative to wasteful selfish consumerism, and thus far, we have been pretty unsuccessful at providing an example for Christians and nonChristians.  

Let me know how you would respond to this question. Why are people poor?  What, as Christians, are we called to do about it?  How can we practically live that out in our lives today?